Kosovo: Press Briefing Transcript for briefing of 09
Jul 2008

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I turn
over to Elli for our only statement today.

OSCE
Spokesperson Elli Flen

Today the OSCE Mission
publishes the report on how the municipalities in Kosovo
have implemented the law on use of languages. The report
recommends among other things that the authorities should
inform the people in Kosovo about their language rights.
People are not always aware of their rights to use their own
language which is of course a basic human right. The report
is available in English, Albanian, Serbian, Turkish and
Romani on the OSCE webpage. A press release will be issued
this morning, and you will find copies of the press release
at the door. Thank you.

UNMIK Spokesperson
Russell Geekie

Any questions?

Express: Russell, is Mr. Zannier going
today to Belgrade and what is his agenda?

Russell: His agenda today is not to go
to Belgrade, actually. As he has made very clear in his
recent statements, he is perfectly willing and available to
travel to Belgrade, to meet with the new Government.
However, let us keep in mind that the Government was only
formed, by vote of Parliament, on Monday afternoon if I am
not mistaken, so he does expect to go, he expects to have a
very positive interaction with the new Government of
Belgrade. I cannot tell you when. At this point I am sure
the Government will extend an invitation. In terms of the
agenda, it is the practical, technical issues, the type of
issues that were outlined by the Secretary-General in his
letters to Presidents Tadic and Sejdiu.

Express: It was originally planned
that he would go today. Did they send any confirmation that
they don't want to meet him or what happened?

Russell: Again, he is available to go,
there was no definite plan that he would go today. He is
available. He looks forward to meeting the new Government,
but I just cannot give you the date now. Nothing has
happened as far as I know, but again you can ask the
Government in Belgrade.

RTK: What
exactly means available? Is he expecting an invitation from
Belgrade so he can go? Because I think yesterday Mr. Zannier
was expecting an invitation to go to Belgrade, other than
that he will not go there. Now let us talk about north again
as many, many times. Before Sunday when Mr. Zannier was
going to visit the north we thought he was going to deal
with the problems that are going on there for months. But he
didn't visit the courts, he only met with political parties,
Serb representatives and Albanians, et cetera. When will
UNMIK start dealing with the real problems which are totally
your responsibility? I mean let us talk about the courts
which are for almost four months now absolutely not
functional.

Russell: I will take the
easy question first, if you don't mind: look, again on the
trip to Belgrade, the Government was just formed. He
signaled his intention to meet with the new Government, as
far as I know the new Government would appreciate meeting
with him as well. It is really, as far as I am concerned, a
matter of when. It is a timing issue, it is a schedule
issue, et cetera. So I am sure he will travel to Belgrade.

Regarding Mr. Zannier's trip to north Mitrovica, he has
made it very clear that he wants to facilitate dialogue and
cast his net as wide as possible with different groups. He
had meetings with people, for instance, members or
representatives of all Kosovo Serb political parties, with
Kosovo Albanian community representatives from northern
Mitrovica as well, and he discussed issues of mutual concern
including the courts. We can assure you that the courts
issue remains a priority issue for the new Special
Representative of the Secretary-General, and he will
continue to work to resolve that.

Glas
Juga: Does the fact that Mr. Zannier is meeting
with some municipal leaders in northern Kosovo mean their
recognition as legal parties?

Russell:
You know our position. UNMIK has not recognized these mayors
as the mayors, but yesterday he met with these leaders as
representatives or members of political parties. I think
that he said this in his press point, just to be clear about
that.

Kosova Press: Zannier has
suspended construction works of water supply in Suhodoll
village and their demand was to obtain prior permission from
parallel Serbian structures. Why did he do this and what is
the main authority, the highest in Kosovo for the time
being? Is it you, UNMIK, or someone else?

Russell: Just to be clear: as far as I
know, and I know it may not have been reported this way, the
Special Representative did not order anyone to stop
construction. What he did was to have a very constructive
meeting with Mayor Rexhepi on, I believe Tuesday evening,
where this issue came up, and possible solutions came up and
one of them was to actually suspend construction to provide
time for everyone to cool down. And the SRSG supports that;
he thinks that at this time it is very important for him to
facilitate dialogue, for all sides to dialogue and to find a
way forward and it was quite useful to have a cool-down
period. I think that this is something that benefits all
communities; it benefits Kosovo-Albanian community,
Kosovo-Serb community up there, so we really want to find a
way forward and maybe by suspending construction it provided
a breathing space.

Kosova Press: Can
you please tell us what is the main authority in Kosovo, is
it UNMIK or Kosovo institutions?

Russell: I am not a lawyer. What I can
tell you is that Security Council resolution 1244 remains in
place. That is from where UNMIK derives its mandate and that
is also where the SRSG derives his authority. I would just
have to leave it there.

KTV: Russell,
can you clarify who is for the time being administrating the
municipality of Strpce? We know that the mandate was
extended by the Government of Kosova but we know that there
is another head of the municipality that has derived from
the parallel structures of 11 May elections. Can you clarify
who is, for the time being, administrating because there is
a kind of confusion on sharing of power?

Russell: As we all know, this is not
an easy situation. It is a difficult situation. What the
SRSG is doing right now, you know, he is working and he is
trying to create a problem-solving environment where we can
work on issues like this. He is talking to different
prospective leaders, et cetera, to really find the way
forward. At this time, the main thing is that there is no
security lapse or anything like that and I think that that
is very important to underline and we will continue to work
on this issue because I think it is in all sides interest to
have really adequate representation for all minorities. I
think Pristina wants this, Kosovo Serbs want this, et
cetera.

KTV: You are saying that you
are going to work on this issue. Are you going to discuss
this issue with the parallel structures?

Russell: Look, again, just to be
clear, UNMIK has not recognized the mayor of Strpce who was
derived from May 11 elections. However, the SRSG is, as I
said, casting his net wide to discus with as many
representatives, leaders, call them what you will, as
possible to really find the way forward.

Blic: A question for Russell and for
Veton: how do you interpret the statement
or information from the Hague Tribunal that the Hague
Tribunal gave full support to the public prosecutor for war
crimes in Serbia to investigate crimes regarding human body
parts trafficking? And a question for
Veton: how far has the investigation gone
regarding the involvement into drug smuggling by people of
the Assembly of Kosovo and if you have in mind data from
yesterday, 20 kilos of drugs have been found on the border
in Merdare? Is at this moment Kosovo exposed to more and
more receiving of drugs? How do you manage to prevent
further import of drugs into Kosovo?

Russell: On the ICTY question, to be
clear let us look at the history of this: in 2002, when
UNMIK first heard about these allegations, UNMIK referred
this matter to the ICTY prosecutor, who was really best
suited to investigate these allegations. The prosecutor at
that time did look into the matter and did not find
sufficient evidence to pursue an investigation further. As
we all know, this issue came up again this year and when it
did, UNMIK again contacted ICTY and shared all information
that UNMIK had, which wasn't much more from intervening
years. But today the ICTY has not indicated that any
additional material would merit a reopening of the case.
That is where we are now. For further questions I would have
to refer you to ICTY.

Veton: Nedeljko,
in regards to your question, investigators have not come up
with any conclusion in regards to these two persons, two
suspects, brothers Hamiti, whether they are involved in some
kind of network or smuggling or not. It is true that 20
kilos of heroin were seized at border crossing point of
Merdare, on the Serbian side - based on information that we
received from media, not official notification. We can
consider that Kosovo is successfully combating smuggling
narcotics but that there is a lot to be done of course. If
we see such an amount as 20 kilograms of heroin and we only
understand this from media. If the information was provided
directly from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia,
things would have been different. We also had successful
cooperation with the international authorities and we had
several successful operations when we seized large amounts
of narcotics in Gjilan region and elsewhere. Nevertheless,
we can achieve more in this respect.

Express: Is there any chance that the
delay of the visit of Mr. Zannier to Belgrade is linked with
his statement yesterday that status negotiations are over?

Russell: No - short answer. The long
answer is I think that that comment was somewhat pulled out
of context. He was responding to a question of whether, when
he travels to Belgrade, would he be traveling to Belgrade to
discus the status issue, and of course as SRSG, he certainly
would not. He would travel to Belgrade to discus these
practical and technical matters.

RTK:
Since there is so much confusion about executive power and
et cetera and et cetera, when you say that UNMIK considers
illegal 11 May elections, does this mean, I mean could you
clarify whether this means that you will not be dealing with
these people at all, or you will be talking to them but you
would not consider them mayors or whatever they call them?

Russell: Look, we all know the history
here. UNMIK did not approve these elections. However, the
SRSG has met some of these individual in their capacity as
members of Kosovo Serb political parties. Essentially what
we are trying to do is create a problem-solving environment
so that we can move forward.

Blic: Is,
in your opinion, the vice-president of the municipality
elected on May 11, a member of a political party or a
vice-president of the municipality? When you say that Mr.
Zannier met with Serbian political parties, but he met with
vice-presidents of the municipalities, in that context, does
the SRSG plan to visit Strpce and with whom will he meet if
not with your representative of political parties? Who is
called president of the municipality, who carries that
function and was elected as president of the municipality?
Than I would ask you: if you work on two railways, Yves de
Kermabon and Peter Feith on one side and Zannier on the
other side, and while Zannier had several meetings with the
political parties while Yves De Kermabon and Peter Feith say
that no we will not accept this, we will only meet with
people who participate in the work of the Government or of
the Assembly of Kosovo, the MPs of the List of the
Independent Liberal Party of Kosovo. In what degree are the
roads that Mr. Zannier and Mr. Feith and Kermabon are using
different? How different are those roads?

Russell: I see you have your
pre-reconfiguration fire back. Number one, I am here to
speak on behalf of UNMIK, not on behalf of EULEX or ICO, so
really I am going to leave that alone whatever their
criteria is. Just to review once again, UNMIK has not
recognized these mayors, but again, the SRSG is casting his
net as wide as possible, he is trying to create an
environment where we can really discuss these issues and
move forward. If he meets a member of a political party who
happens to have been appointed mayor by some other
authority, you know, so be it. The main thing is to get as
many views as possible and to move forward.

KTV: Russell, you said that the SRSG
hasn't recognized the results of the 11 May elections. It is
a fact that the municipality and the assembly of Serbs is
created. It is something that cannot be changed for the
moment, but in order to organize the power in the areas
where Serbs are, are you going to prevent them to administer
that territory and if so, will you seek from KPS to
undertake any action to prevent them?

Russell: I will say it one more time,
we are trying to create a problem-solving environment, not a
confrontational one. We are not going to talk about bringing
in the police right now. Let us move forward and see where
we are. I mean in terms of the assembly of municipalities in
Mitrovica, as far as I know, from everything that we have
learned, it is not a true parliament that is making law, for
instance. So once again, let us hold discussions, let us get
leaders that people believe in and that we can work with,
let us move forward and not talk right now about what we are
going to do and not do, on confrontation, et cetera. I think
everyone here wants to move forward. This the way to go.

KTV: How to move forward? To ignore
them? To let them do their job and just not say anything and
just ignore them as did the SRSG yesterday when he did not
meet them?

Russell: Look, the SRSG
made it very clear that he met these individuals in their
capacity as political party leaders, now this is something
that we recognize. He is at the beginning of this process,
you know to really find the way forward, so let us be a
little patient. Let us give him some credit. He is listening
and he will work with all parties to find solutions, that is
where he is right now, okay?

Kosova
Press: A question for Veton:
at the time being, are you under command of Kosovo
Government and if Kosovo Government demands from you such a
thing, would you undertake anything, any action against
Serbian parallel structures?

Veton:
KPS will execute all decisions coming from Kosovo
Government. Of course we do not interfere into political
affairs and we are pragmatic in this respect. It might
happen that in a given situation we would tolerate an action
by a politician. Nevertheless, Mitrovica is more a political
issue and we will act accordingly and it is not my
responsibility to whom the Kosovo Government should be
consulting with.

Glas Juga: You said
that the statement on final status was taken out of the
context, if I understood you well, can you clarify that
issue, what is the position of Mr. Zannier toward the status
issue? Is he neutral or does he consider the status talks
finished?

Russell: We all know that
UNMIK's position can only be status-neutral. I think that
any other questions would go to New York, it is not Mr.
Zannier's role to even discuss that since he is here to work
on, again, practical, flexible solutions to some of these
issues that we are having and that concern all the
communities here.

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